


Pretty Cities

by raindropfeathers



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29162925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raindropfeathers/pseuds/raindropfeathers
Summary: She has never been a pretty city, that she knows.
Relationships: Gotham City & Bruce Wayne, Gotham City & Metropolis
Kudos: 14





	Pretty Cities

**Author's Note:**

> For the story's sake, imagine that Hub City is just outside New Jersey.

She has never been a pretty city, that she knows. She has never been quite concrete, either, though it seems that she at a standstill nowadays. She wears her blood-stained pearls around her neck, and you can always hear the click-clacking of her heels. Her teeth are blinding. Sharp, unnatural things that are displayed in a smart smile that is an edge of the knife. Her eyes are cold and dark, and hungry- hungry for her blood. Her laugh is too high-pitched, too irregular, to be true. She hinges on the door of insanity, the slightest breeze holds the strongest sway. She has scars crisscrossing her skin, a map of death and despair that only the mad can navigate. Her coat is hopelessly outdated, ugly but always in her style. Tiny shards of glass prick at the skin of those around her. They draw blood, dripping on the grimy street. And she smiles her smile the second they get too close, and strikes and they are laying on the floor, bleeding, half-conscious only to register their mistakes. Her blood stays with her. 

They only go to her if they must. They don’t bother her, barely daring to whisper. They know if they misstep, the demons of hell, the kind only she could create, will come at them, nipping at their heels. They’d rather approach her sister, New York City, much more welcoming, or Bludhaven, who at least doesn’t have a hellhound snarling at the gates. Maybe they’ll even look at the estranged cousin, Hub City. Doesn’t matter anyway, because only the desperate and the dead come to her. When a prince in shining armor tries to slay the beast, she swallows it. Its armor is too bright, to blinding, for her dark skies and shadowy night. She’ll rip it away, piece by piece, throwing just out of reach. She’ll expose its scars from hidden battles, and then she’ll add more of her own. She’ll taunt and tease until it gives up, pleads, and begs. And she will laugh. She will laugh and spit in its face, and it will cry and cry until its tears are all dried up, and it snaps. And it will laugh, too. And they will laugh, daunting the rooftops, dancing across the sky, and it will be hers. 

If Metropolis decides to poke around, sending her brave prince to the dark castle, then so be it. Because she has her own knight, her own savior, who lives as the sun and the moon, who knows life on both sides. And Metropolis’s blinding light has nothing on her knights, who twist and turn in the skies. They laugh a hollow laugh, one that can scar the invulnerable, and rattle the unshakeable. Her knights live for her, they are made for her, they bleed for her, and one day they will die for her. And while Metropolis has her angels, she has her demons who slip poison through the most careful of facades. And soon their friends will be her soldiers, too. She will live on, through the years, with her bloodied and grimy streets, false smiles, and quiet secrets. Nothing can save her, nothing can stop her, and nothing is foolish enough to try. She will stay, unmoveable, fixed, while the world shines around her. An ugly mole that won’t go away. And once all is said and done, when all is broken beyond repair, she’ll turn on herself. And she will laugh while she dances in the fire of her empire, and the world would look on in horror, if they weren’t whimpering at her feet. And when the flames consume all, her children will stand. Because they are nothing if not stubborn. No, Gotham never said she was pretty.


End file.
